Welcome to tropical Paradise, Martinique

If you are looking for place where summer never ends, miles long beautiful white sand beaches, tropical forest, swimming with turtles or sunbath on volcanic black sand beach while drinking rum-juice, stop looking because -> Martinique has it all.

We traveled to this Caribbean island in February and stayed 2 weeks.
This is our experience of Martinique.

Best time to travel to Martinique?

Temperature on island is average 27 Celsius (80 f) all year long. However, there is a chance of hurricanes in summer and fall, so it is advised to travel in dry season, from November to May. Islands peek season if from December to March. If you want to avoid peek season prices and crowds, travel in pre-season months. We traveled in February and, comparing to Croatia summer season, there wasn’t as many tourists on the island.

How to get there?

Being French department in Caribbean, the cheapest flights are from France, Paris. From Paris you can also find affordable flights to Guadeloupe, St. Barth and St. Martin, other, equally beautiful, French Caribbean islands.
Flight duration is between 7 and 9.5 hours, depending on flight carrier. We flew with Corsair and had a lovely experience.

How to get around?

Martinique has ​​1128 km2 and is easily to get around by car. Who doesn’t like a good road trip? We wanted to see as much as we could and explore the island driving around “like a local”.

We rented a car with IZYCARLOC rent a car agency. They replied promptly, on a very good English and the car was easily booked online.
Since they have office 5 minute drive from the airport, they pick you up and drop you off at the airport. It is full “door to door” service.

We got PEUGEOT 208, which price starts at 28€ per day. They also provided us with baby seat and insurance.
You can get a bigger car, but keep in mind some inland roads are small village roads. Instead of bigger, go for stronger car. There is a big climb if you are going to the volcano and most of the north part has a lot of big inclines on the roads.
We did 1.050 km all around the island and spent 120€ total on gas.

Here, you can find their Instagram – @izycarloc

Where to stay on island?
We stayed in Saint Joseph, little town in the center of the island in “green country”. We traveled with a baby Oliver, so we wanted to have only one “home” for 2 weeks. We picked 2 bedroom “TAHITI TOUCH” trough Airbnb.

TAHITI TOUCH is really amazing! It has all you need on vacation: comfort, clean, has all the appliances and very nice hosts. We arrived late and didn’t make to the supermarket, so they helped us with some basic food to “live trough the night” and they gave us croissants for breakfast. This will never be forgotten! Thank you.

Siant Joseph is a perfect location to stay longer and still explore everything. To go all the way up north to the Anse Ceron (black sand beach) we had 1.5 hour and the same to the south towards Anse des Salines, white sand beach. So we were exactly in the middle of the places we wanted to visit.

You will save some time, kilometers and money, if you sleep a few nights in the black beaches of north and gradually move to the south where white tropical beaches await you.

Things to do in Martinique?

BEACHES

From north to south there are numerous beautiful beaches. I will list all the ones we visited, with city names, in the order of preferences.

1.Anse Ceron (Saint Pierre)

2. Grande Anse des Salines (Saint Anne)

3. Anse Dufour (Anses d’Arlet)

4. La Pointe Marin (Saint Anne)

5. Les Anses d’Arlet (Anses d’Arlet)

6. Anse Couleuvre (Saint Pierre)

7. Plage de La Brèche (Presqu’île de la Caravelle)

8. Pointe du Bout (Trois Ilets)

MUSEUMS & DISTILLERIES

Very nice break from the beach you can get in many Martinique museums.

1.Habitation Clément destillery

2. Depaz Rhum destillery

3. Jardin de Balata, botanical garden

4. Anse Cafard Memorial, open space museum

5. La Savane des esclaves – history museum

6. Maison de la Canne – house of sugar

7. Schoelcher library

NATURE

It is beautiful everywhere you go, but some big “nature spots” are:

1. Mont Pelee

2. Presqu’île de la Caravelle peninsula

3. Saut du Gendarme

4. Didier waterfall
5. Etang des Salines

6. Mangrove forest

What should we write about next? Do you need detailed beach descriptions or would you rather learn more about Jardin de Balata botanical garden? Let us know in the comments or leave a message on our Instagram page @dianomaya

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